Explanation:
This eerie landscape
of
incandescent plasma suspended in
looping and twisted magnetic fields stretched toward the
Sun's eastern horizon on September 16.
Captured through a backyard telescope
and narrowband filter in light from ionized hydrogen,
the scene reveals a gigantic prominence lofted above the solar limb.
Some 600,000 kilometres across, the magnetized plasma wall would
dwarf worlds of
the Solar System.
Ruling gas giant Jupiter can only boast a diameter of
143,000 kilometres or so, while
planet Earth's diameter is less than 13,000 kilometres.
Known as a hedgerow prominence for its appearance, the enormous
structure is far from stable though, and such large solar
prominences
often erupt.